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Tom Powers: Lacrosse has a foothold here now, and we finally can talk playoffs

Pioneer Press

Posted:
04/17/2011 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated:
04/17/2011 12:58:11 PM CDT

Two things I thought I'd never see in my lifetime: free enterprise on Mainland China and kids playing lacrosse after school.

Actually, I half expected the Chinese to come around. But this lacrosse thing is a surprise. And these are regular, normal youngsters practicing lacrosse in the park or the cul de sac. Not at Johns Hopkins or on Long Island between afternoon tea and ROTC meetings, but right here in Minnesota.

Lacrosse has become very cool. There are 10,000 registered lacrosse players in our district, which includes Minnesota and the Dakotas. There are roughly 65 high school varsity programs in the state. Those numbers were much lower before the Swarm began operations at Xcel Energy Center in 2005. The local entry in the National Lacrosse League has succeeded in growing the sport.

The Swarm beat the Philadelphia Wings 11-9 on Saturday night. Unlike the primary tenant at Xcel, the Swarm will be participating in the playoffs. Against the Wings, they wore bright pink jerseys and helmets as part of a cancer awareness initiative. You haven't lived until you've seen guys dressed in shocking pink beating the hell out of the opposition. This is a rough and aggressive sport.

Several scraps broke out. Everybody in the building gets worked into a frenzy. I got so wound up that I throttled the person sitting next to me in the press box.

The team does not yet turn a profit for owners John and Andy Arlotta. But the deficit is shrinking.

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Several years ago, there would be about 11,000 fans in attendance for home games. Perhaps 8,000 of those fans were there on freebies. It was similar to the Timberwolves' current business model. The Wolves hand out free tickets as if they were gumdrops.

The idea is that the people will like what they see and pay to come back. Except in the case of the Wolves, people are horrified at what they see and run for the hills, refusing to accept any more free tickets.

This season, the Swarm have averaged about 7,500 fans per home game. And almost every one of them has paid to get in. The freebies have stopped. Saturday's attendance was 9,635, largest of the season.

Research shows that many of those who used to get in for nothing now own season tickets. Mission accomplished. The player/fan pipeline continues to expand as the players are involved locally. Joe Cinosky, for example, coaches the club team at the University of Minnesota and the varsity at Mounds View High School. Andrew Suitor coaches Native Americans, the real inventors of the game, at Prairie Island. Sean Pollock used to coach at Lakeville South.

"You can really see the talent at the youth level," Cinosky said. "There are three or four teams at every age level. The high school game is still kind of new, up and coming. As compared to some of the hotbeds, it's a little bit behind. But the development at the youth level, the talent is really something."

Most of the Swarm's players are from Ontario and all have day jobs. It's been well chronicled that it's almost impossible to make a living from lacrosse, even playing in both the indoor and outdoor leagues and coaching. In the NLL, salaries range from about $10,000 to $35,000.

In fact, one of the feel-good stories of this season is captain Ryan Cousins, who has been with the team since its inception. But he could not play during the second half of last season and the first half of this season. That's because he was in training to be a firefighter in the Toronto area. And he was told that if he got hurt playing lacrosse it would jeopardize his chances of landing a full-time job.

His training now over, he's a full-fledged fireman and back in action with the Swarm.

"I've had four or five house fires and a couple of industrial fires," Cousins noted. "But, oh God, lacrosse is something I was used to doing every day. I've been playing pro for the last 10 years."

The Swarm have one more home game, next Saturday against Colorado, before the playoffs. In the NLL, lose one game and you're out, so the Swarm hope to earn home-turf advantage. They haven't had a home playoff game since 2008.

"The fans deserve it," Cinosky said. "We've come close a couple of times. This year we have all the pieces."

A home playoff game would give the sport more exposure here. By then the kids could be playing lacrosse instead of climbing the monkey bars during recess.